I've just bought "I Still Love You" by Harry Deal on ebay from the US for £70 and I've had to pay £14 vat & £8 Parcelforce clearance fee. I assume this is due to the seller insuring it and having the value on the outside but I've never had to pay before, how common is this ? Is there anything I can do to avoid this if I buy an insured item again ? The seller wrote on that it was a gift but that doesn't seem to have made any difference.

Thanks

Crumb

Welcome to theNew World! Customs have sussed all the going ons re: eBay and rare 4s, or expenive goods in general and are now catching up with everyoe. I've had this happen a few times in the past few months. My accountant says no way we are going to be able to avoid in future as they have a whole department geared to this. Boo Hoo!!!!

If the seller declares the real value and it's over (I think) about £15 the HM Customs & Excise want their cut of import tax. The only way around it is that the seller puts on the customs declaration that it's worth say USD5.00 but then you are stuffed as far as insuring it

I've had a number of occaisions were the post office put on a sticker saying I need to be charged but the postie didn't see it so I've gotten away with it

Edited December 8, 200618 yr by richard

I've just bought "I Still Love You" by Harry Deal on ebay from the US for £70 and I've had to pay £14 vat & £8 Parcelforce clearance fee. I assume this is due to the seller insuring it and having the value on the outside but I've never had to pay before, how common is this ? Is there anything I can do to avoid this if I buy an insured item again ? The seller wrote on that it was a gift but that doesn't seem to have made any difference.

Thanks

Crumb

Happens every now and then. Price you pay for insuring international stuff Mate. Customs and Excise are supposed to check a certain percentage of arriving parcels, looks like you were one of the unlucky ones. An alternative is to pay for "International Signed For" if your concerned about the seller, but then of course that doesn't give you any insurance against damage.

Also...the fact that it is noted as a 'gift' means nothing in terms of Customs and Excise. Of course another way to look at it is to celebrate the fact that you haven't been "kippered " on all your previous purchases!

Regards,

Dave

www.theresthatbeat.com

www.hitsvillesoulclub.com

I have just bought the new Skinhead Reggae Box Set from Dusty Groove in Chicago and Canada Customs charged me $8 to pick it up and they opened the parcel and ripped the fcuking cellophane off the box set!!!!!

I have just bought the new Skinhead Reggae Box Set from Dusty Groove in Chicago and Canada Customs charged me $8 to pick it up and they opened the parcel and ripped the fcuking cellophane off the box set!!!!!

Kev,

I know the feeling! I once went through an airport security point (may have been Atlanta), with a box of 200 45s. All flight cased up, pretty obvious they were "fragile goods". Anyway , the moron at the checkpoint asks "What 's in the box?" Records I tell her. "Open it up please?" Certainly says I...I opens the case and she immediately grabbed about 15 45s from the front of the case and proceeded to BEND them!! Why? I have no idea, but the Vulcan Death Grip I had on her wrist just as my Palmer Demo copy of Al Williams was about to snap probably alerted her to the fact that I was "not best pleased"! She then starts with the old "assault" waffle. Must admit at this stage ...the mist came down and I explained to her that she was extremely lucky that she hadn't bent them any more as if they had snapped she would have now been lying on the floor in exactly the same number of peices as my records were in!

Needless to say uniforms were called and I was put in the tank to rethink the error of my ways, reassess my attitude towards public servants and was duly reprimanded by a useless donut eating weevil before being sent on my way with a the following maxim resounding in my ears.."This is America Sir, we don't treat people like that!" Yeah.....tell it to the Red Indians Mate!......

Eeeeh! Sorry for the rant but I feel better now I've got that offa my chest!

Regards,

Dave

www.theresthatbeat.com

www.hitsvillesoulclub.com

I have just bought the new Skinhead Reggae Box Set from Dusty Groove in Chicago and Canada Customs charged me $8 to pick it up and they opened the parcel and ripped the fcuking cellophane off the box set!!!!!

Got this myself.. had to pay £27 total (includes the postage) direct from Trojan. How much did you pay if you don't mind me asking?

John

Kev,

I know the feeling! I once went through an airport security point (may have been Atlanta), with a box of 200 45s. All flight cased up, pretty obvious they were "fragile goods". Anyway , the moron at the checkpoint asks "What 's in the box?" Records I tell her. "Open it up please?" Certainly says I...I opens the case and she immediately grabbed about 15 45s from the front of the case and proceeded to BEND them!! Why? I have no idea, but the Vulcan Death Grip I had on her wrist just as my Palmer Demo copy of Al Williams was about to snap probably alerted her to the fact that I was "not best pleased"! She then starts with the old "assault" waffle. Must admit at this stage ...the mist came down and I explained to her that she was extremely lucky that she hadn't bent them any more as if they had snapped she would have now been lying on the floor in exactly the same number of peices as my records were in!

Needless to say uniforms were called and I was put in the tank to rethink the error of my ways, reassess my attitude towards public servants and was duly reprimanded by a useless donut eating weevil before being sent on my way with a the following maxim resounding in my ears.."This is America Sir, we don't treat people like that!" Yeah.....tell it to the Red Indians Mate!......

Eeeeh! Sorry for the rant but I feel better now I've got that offa my chest!

Regards,

Dave

www.theresthatbeat.com

www.hitsvillesoulclub.com

Great piece that Dave.

Just goes to show though, those Soul Police are everywhere ! she was only checking for styrene or vinyl in case they weren't true originals YOU CANNOT ESCAPE THE NORTHERN INQUESITION !!

Slider

Box set with shipping cost me the $4598US or 24 quid, so pretty much the same.

Kevin

Slider

Box set with shipping cost me the $4598

Jeez!

I've just bought a record at something like $400 and the bloke said he was declaring the full value, so I explained that I needed it marked with a low value and as a gift, so he said he'd put 150 on it. So I told him I wouldn't pay for it as the tax they add on will wipe out my profit and obviously I expect him to leave negative for me but I'll do the same. So now he's sent it marked as a gift and $20.

Kev,

I know the feeling! I once went through an airport security point (may have been Atlanta), with a box of 200 45s. All flight cased up, pretty obvious they were "fragile goods". Anyway , the moron at the checkpoint asks "What 's in the box?" Records I tell her. "Open it up please?"

On the way to Barcelona an acetate in my box triggered the explosives detector, they swabbed the box and everything! Oops! Very nice Scottish lady handled the records with great care though, telling me about her Bay City Rollers 45s.

I've found that once you get done by customs they can tend to pick on you. Luckily I changed addresses shortly after getting done for a bout a grand in a month. They also broke a mint Mitty Collier LP, and I couldn't get any compensation. :angry: I blame the whole thing on Gordon Brown.

Kev,

I know the feeling! I once went through an airport security point (may have been Atlanta), with a box of 200 45s. All flight cased up, pretty obvious they were "fragile goods". Anyway , the moron at the checkpoint asks "What 's in the box?" Records I tell her. "Open it up please?" Certainly says I...I opens the case and she immediately grabbed about 15 45s from the front of the case and proceeded to BEND them!! Why? I have no idea, but the Vulcan Death Grip I had on her wrist just as my Palmer Demo copy of Al Williams was about to snap probably alerted her to the fact that I was "not best pleased"! She then starts with the old "assault" waffle. Must admit at this stage ...the mist came down and I explained to her that she was extremely lucky that she hadn't bent them any more as if they had snapped she would have now been lying on the floor in exactly the same number of peices as my records were in!

Needless to say uniforms were called and I was put in the tank to rethink the error of my ways, reassess my attitude towards public servants and was duly reprimanded by a useless donut eating weevil before being sent on my way with a the following maxim resounding in my ears.."This is America Sir, we don't treat people like that!" Yeah.....tell it to the Red Indians Mate!......

Eeeeh! Sorry for the rant but I feel better now I've got that offa my chest!

Regards,

Dave

www.theresthatbeat.com

www.hitsvillesoulclub.com

You should know that mixing it with customs officers - there's only ever going to be one winner! Great story though.

Reminds me of the one time we turned up in Baltimore on a direct flight from the UK in the good old days of TWA and the customs donuts were not ready for us so all the passengers were held in some bland "holding area" and just kept in this room until the customs officers had finished their lunch of worm sandwiches and fizzy pop. Anyway after a while some hooray starts kicking off about being late for a meeting, the US is a disgrace etc. - basically I don't know if it was claustrophobia or what but he completely flipped. And we just knew what was going to happen next...and it did. Enter security, exit hooray, never to be seen again. He's probably still in Guantanamo

:angry: I blame the whole thing on Gordon Brown.

I blame Brown for most of the ills of this country, but this time I am afraid he is relatively innocent. It used to be bad back in the mid 80's with posties knocking you up at 7 am to collect £1.06 in customs duty etc. In the post 9/11 world the customs bods have all been fixated with terrorism and drugs so for several years it was pretty quiet, and records generally sailed through unless Oliver Normal was on duty and spotted your records. In recent times customs have "staffed up", and reverted to their old ways - the main difference is the records are much more expensive, and therefore the duty is much higher.

I was stopped by customs on a trip back from Amsterdam 8 years ago. As well as my holdall, I had a large carrier bag with about 80 7" singles, which is the main thing the customs official was interested in.

He grabbed about 10 records at a time out of the bag, and methodically began looking between each record, and in some sleeves (I presume this was a check for any unusual powdered substances). Just after he'd got to the third pile, the conversation turned to records, and he mentioned that he was a mix DJ in his spare time! Was a world apart from my collecting, as he collected 12" singles, some I'd never even heard of! As I struggled to cram my underwear back into my holdall, I shook his hand and bid him a friendly farewell!

The people you meet........................................

Needless to say uniforms were called and I was put in the tank to rethink the error of my ways, reassess my attitude towards public servants and was duly reprimanded by a useless donut eating weevil before being sent on my way

Dave

www.theresthatbeat.com

www.hitsvillesoulclub.com

You might consider yourself to have got off lightly Dave, it could have ended with the old rubber glove treatment !!

Brian